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9/16/11

Ride In 9/16

According to some, strict calendarists as I call them, the season of autumn does not begin for another couple of weeks, but for the bike commuting set, it begins the first morning that you have to wear a jacket to work. That morning was this morning, where the temperature hovered around 48 degrees, almost cold enough for gloves, but probably not really. I decided that I wanted to ride in work clothes, much more easily accommodated on Friday when I forego by usual 'work tuxedo' in place of jeans and an untucked button down shirt. I never quite know if this attire is actually appropriate for work, where normally I'm expected to not dress like one of the grad students I advise, but no one has said anything about it, so I suppose I'm in the clear. Speaking of attire, let me also go "on the record" to support this idea. Though I wonder what DC Commuter Chic would actually look like. Rumpled blue suits? Ann Taylor everything? Too-short khakis with chain grease? Wait and see, I suppose.
I initially planned to ride the Haul, but stuck with the Cross Check, but rode with regular shoes, which work fine, but not great, with my clippy pedals. Since this was my last day riding in from our current place, I wanted to take the usual bike on the usual route one last time. The ride was as usual, which is to say uneventful. Kept catching up to, and subsequently falling back from, this guy on a Trek road bike with a messenger style Ortlieb bag, who never exactly came to a complete stop and instead, at each red light, would ride perpendicularly to the rows of stopped cars and then jump the light once there was a break in traffic. Do what you want, but this seems sort of dumb. The dumbest part is that his refusal to actually stop and insistence on jumping lights didn't actually seem to make any difference to his relative trip time. Which is all to say that the difference as far as your overall ride time is concerned between stopping at red lights and stop signs and not doing either of those is fairly minimal.
I didn't notice any police presence at Arlington's most dangerous intersection. I did, however, noticed continued police presence on the bridge. At this point, the only 'credible threat' I can identify is that if you're driving, you're going to be late for work.
M to Wisconsin and a slog made more complicated by a Circulator and a few trucks in loading zones. The usual spate of close-ish calls in Glover Park by the Whole Foods. There's just something about that stretch of road (maybe the width combined with the street parking) that just doesn't make it amenable to biking. Also, dueling Jetta drivers trying to see who could be the bigger asshole. And a pick-up truck that drove from one parking spot to another for reasons I couldn't quite determine. At Calvert, I decided that I couldn't allow my last day to be without New Mexico, so I cut across and then worked my way up. Maybe I'll miss it, but I'm not so sure. And I suppose if nostalgia ever takes over (or if they ever install the bike lanes...), the road will still be there.